Font is messed up on Firefox 17.0

Just updated to FF17.0 and the fonts look awful, something like when the ClearType is enabled in Windows. I have ClearType disabled cause I hate the look of the fonts with it enabled, and now Firefox looks like it's all over it. Font is like bolded. What happened? Can I disable it somewhere in Firefox?

Just updated to FF17.0 and the fonts look awful, something like when the ClearType is enabled in Windows. I have ClearType disabled cause I hate the look of the fonts with it enabled, and now Firefox looks like it's all over it. Font is like bolded. What happened? Can I disable it somewhere in Firefox?

Chosen solution

Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who helped us in troubleshooting this. We are fairly certain it's an azure problem. There is a patch in the works and setting gfx.content.azure.enabled = False seems to work in the meantime. I don't know if the patch will be part of a chemspill or wait until 18. Thanks for your help and patience.

here is two screenshots on a webpage with cleartype off, the other one is with the setting azure.content false. Both is with ff 17.0.1

click on the image and then You have to right click and view image, otherwise you don't see the difference

here is two screenshots on a webpage with cleartype off, the other one is with the setting azure.content false. Both is with ff 17.0.1
click on the image and then You have to right click and view image, otherwise you don't see the difference

In two first cases, cleartype is enabled in web pages, which is also wrong.

Please, look the uploaded images in full size.

Usually I use cleartype OFF and smooth edges of screen fonts OFF. And normally (with firefox 16 to 3) it looks what you see on the screenshot 2.

In two first cases, cleartype is enabled in web pages, which is also wrong.
Please, look the uploaded images in full size.
Usually I use cleartype OFF and smooth edges of screen fonts OFF. And normally (with firefox 16 to 3) it looks what you see on the screenshot 2.

17.0.1 is still having the font problem for me too, so I set gfx.content.azure.enabled = False again, so I'm good until it is really fixed.

Also, it appears that my Windows 7 desktop is the only computer where I experience the problem: My Windows 7 laptop doesn't seem to have the problem (with 17.0), and my XP desktop doesn't have the problem (with 17.0).

17.0.1 is still having the font problem for me too, so I set gfx.content.azure.enabled = False again, so I'm good until it is really fixed.
Also, it appears that my Windows 7 desktop is the only computer where I experience the problem: My Windows 7 laptop doesn't seem to have the problem (with 17.0), and my XP desktop doesn't have the problem (with 17.0).

OK, so it looks to me like there are two issues here, and only one of them is fixed in the 17.0.1 update. Here's what I think is going on, and why some people are reporting it's "fixed", and others "still bad".

There are two separate (but related) Windows options involved here, and these lead to three distinct scenarios:
(A) Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts option, found in the System / Advanced Settings / Performance Options panel.
(B) ClearType (subpixel antialiasing, which gives colored fringes on the glyphs), which is enabled/disabled using the ClearType Text Tuner (accessed through the Adjust ClearType Text option in the Display control panel).

(1) If you have both Smoothing (A) and ClearType (B) enabled (which is the Windows default), there's no issue; it all works as intended. But some people dislike the result. (Note that the ClearType Text Tuner may be able to improve things, if the default settings aren't good for your graphics system.)

(2) If you have Smoothing (A) enabled but ClearType (B) disabled, you should get text that uses grayscale-only antialiasing, so there's a "smoothing" effect but without the colored fringing that ClearType can give. This configuration was broken in Azure in Firefox 17.0 - it used subpixel rendering, although it shouldn't have - and fixed in 17.0.1. So the people reporting that things are now fixed are the people who have Font Smoothing enabled, but ClearType disabled.

(3) Finally, if you have both (A) and (B) disabled, meaning you want no font smoothing AT ALL, things are still broken. These settings should give completely "un-smoothed" glyphs, with crisp edges (but jagged curves) everywhere. However, this fails badly under Azure, and you actually get poorly subpixel-rendered text. (Looking at the screenshots, it seems to be WORSE than the default where (A) and (B) are both enabled.) And 17.0.1 did not address this problem.

So I believe the people who have turned off both (A) and (B) are the ones reporting that 17.0.1 is still broken.

As far as I can tell, scenario (3) is fixed in Firefox 18 (currently in Beta), so those experiencing this issue might like to try that version (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/beta/) - and please provide feedback, with details of your configuration, if you DO still see problems.

OK, so it looks to me like there are two issues here, and only one of them is fixed in the 17.0.1 update. Here's what I think is going on, and why some people are reporting it's "fixed", and others "still bad".
There are two separate (but related) Windows options involved here, and these lead to three distinct scenarios:
(A) Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts option, found in the System / Advanced Settings / Performance Options panel.
(B) ClearType (subpixel antialiasing, which gives colored fringes on the glyphs), which is enabled/disabled using the ClearType Text Tuner (accessed through the Adjust ClearType Text option in the Display control panel).
(1) If you have both Smoothing (A) and ClearType (B) enabled (which is the Windows default), there's no issue; it all works as intended. But some people dislike the result. (Note that the ClearType Text Tuner may be able to improve things, if the default settings aren't good for your graphics system.)
(2) If you have Smoothing (A) enabled but ClearType (B) disabled, you should get text that uses grayscale-only antialiasing, so there's a "smoothing" effect but without the colored fringing that ClearType can give. This configuration was broken in Azure in Firefox 17.0 - it used subpixel rendering, although it shouldn't have - and fixed in 17.0.1. So the people reporting that things are now fixed are the people who have Font Smoothing enabled, but ClearType disabled.
(3) Finally, if you have both (A) and (B) disabled, meaning you want no font smoothing AT ALL, things are still broken. These settings should give completely "un-smoothed" glyphs, with crisp edges (but jagged curves) everywhere. However, this fails badly under Azure, and you actually get poorly subpixel-rendered text. (Looking at the screenshots, it seems to be WORSE than the default where (A) and (B) are both enabled.) And 17.0.1 did not address this problem.
So I believe the people who have turned off both (A) and (B) are the ones reporting that 17.0.1 is still broken.
As far as I can tell, scenario (3) is fixed in Firefox 18 (currently in Beta), so those experiencing this issue might like to try that version (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/beta/) - and please provide feedback, with details of your configuration, if you DO still see problems.

Hi guys. I've cloned the original bug so that we can continue to investigate the scenario that's been reported to still be causing the issue. Our QA team has tried to reproduce it and is failing to do so. I'm wondering it may be a hardware issue?

The new bug is 818164. Please do not post to this bug unless you can add clarity or provide more details on how to reproduce. If you are experiencing the issue but do not have any additional information, please add your "me too" vote to this thread.

Hi guys. I've cloned the original bug so that we can continue to investigate the scenario that's been reported to still be causing the issue. Our QA team has tried to reproduce it and is failing to do so. I'm wondering it may be a hardware issue?
The new bug is [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=818164 818164]. Please do not post to this bug unless you can add clarity or provide more details on how to reproduce. If you are experiencing the issue but do not have any additional information, please add your "me too" vote to this thread.

For me, the font issue wasn't tied to version 17 of Firefox - the same (un)smoothing font problem existed even when I tried 16.0.0.2 and the newest 18 beta.

The issue arose when I did a Reset Firefox while using version 17 - after that the fonts in the tabs, address bar, bookmarks and FF dialogs looked screwed up.

I tried the tips offered in this thread (changes in the config), but none of them seemed to work, not even disabling the azure setting. At that point I checked again the Graphics section of the Troubleshooting Information page, and I noticed that both Direct2D enabled and GPU Accelerated Windows showed that they were 'disabled for this driver version'.

I was using AMD Catalyst 12.8 which I then updated to 12.10. After this, I re-enabled Direct2D and set content.azure to false, and lo and behold, the fonts looked legible again.

So in my case, the problem was a combination of old(?) graphics drivers and the azure functionality.

For me, the font issue wasn't tied to version 17 of Firefox - the same (un)smoothing font problem existed even when I tried 16.0.0.2 and the newest 18 beta.
The issue arose when I did a Reset Firefox while using version 17 - after that the fonts in the tabs, address bar, bookmarks and FF dialogs looked screwed up.
I tried the tips offered in this thread (changes in the config), but none of them seemed to work, not even disabling the azure setting. At that point I checked again the Graphics section of the Troubleshooting Information page, and I noticed that both Direct2D enabled and GPU Accelerated Windows showed that they were 'disabled for this driver version'.
I was using AMD Catalyst 12.8 which I then updated to 12.10. After this, I re-enabled Direct2D and set content.azure to false, and lo and behold, the fonts looked legible again.
So in my case, the problem was a combination of old(?) graphics drivers and the azure functionality.

Was focused on "Font is messed up on Firefox" ~~ Not "17" in the title of this topic.

The problem began when I updated from FF17 to FF18.

Been researching and testing this-n-that for past two days to no avail and truly don't know what to look for to fix the problem that ONLY occurs in FF18, not IE9 both running on a new clean custom installation build of Win7-64.

The problem exists mostly on the curved elements in text characters. It seems as if the vertically straight text element characters are much sharper and crisper. Go figure...

Maybe I should start a new topic or go look for an existing general topic on POOR text font rendering.

Thoughts? Thanks so much.

Geeze... Sorry 'bout that!
Was focused on "Font is messed up on Firefox" ~~ Not "17" in the title of this topic.
The problem began when I updated from FF17 to FF18.
Been researching and testing this-n-that for past two days to no avail and truly don't know what to look for to fix the problem that ONLY occurs in FF18, not IE9 both running on a new clean custom installation build of Win7-64.
The problem exists mostly on the curved elements in text characters. It seems as if the vertically straight text element characters are much sharper and crisper. Go figure...
Maybe I should start a new topic or go look for an existing general topic on POOR text font rendering.
Thoughts? Thanks so much.

Here are two images: IE9 and FF18.
Take note of the "curved elements" in text characters to see how fuzzy they are in FF18 compared to IE9.
1) Left: Firefox_v18_PoorFontTextRendering_FromStratMan55_20130111__Using-FF18-WithFuzzyProblem.jpg
2) Right: Firefox_v18_PoorFontTextRendering_FromStratMan55_20130111__Using-IE9-NoProblem.jpg
Thanks.

QUOTE: AliceWyman
Top 25 Contributor
Moderator
123 solutions
Posted 11/29/12 6:44 PM: For Windows users, the blurry fonts issue will be fixed in Firefox 17.0.1, which should be released very soon (hopefully, tomorrow). More info here: